The book, 'The Children of Croke Park', by Michael Foley, tells the story of the three children who were killed on Bloody Sunday - Jerome O’Leary (10), William ‘Perry’ Robinson (11), and John William ‘Billy’ Scott (14).
By John Harrington
103 years ago on this date, November 21, 14 people lost their lives in Croke Park when they were shot by British forces.
Three of those murdered on Bloody Sunday were children – Jerome O’Leary (10), William ‘Perry’ Robinson (11), and John William ‘Billy’ Scott (14).
Children are the first victims of war, and they’re also often the most silent, their lives taken from them before they’ve had time to really leave a mark on the world and leave a story behind them.
That was certainly the case for O’Leary, Robinson, and Scott, who became little more than historical foot-notes as the mists of time shrouded the events of Bloody Sunday and those who perished on that day.
No longer, thankfully. Journalist and author, Michael Foley, did Irish history a great service by penning his excellent book and then producing a companion podcast series, ‘The Bloodied Field’, which brought the events of Bloody Sunday and its victims back to life.
And this year he slipped into place what he regards as “the final piece of the jigsaw” by writing another book about that day, ’The Children of Croke Park – Bloody Sunday’, which focuses on the all too short lives of Jerome O’Leary, William Robinson, and John William Scott.
It’s aimed at 9-12 year olds, and written in a fast-paced and intimate style that vividly brings back to life the childhood world of those three boys.
Left to right William ‘Perry’ Robinson (11), Jerome O’Leary (10), and John William ‘Billy’ Scott (14) who were killed on Bloody Sunday in Croke Park in 1920.
‘The Bloodied Field’ was published on the 100th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 1920 when Ireland was in Covid-19 lockdown, and the inspiration for ‘The Children of Croke Park – Bloody Sunday’, came partly from Foley’s experience of talking to schoolchildren about that Bloody Sunday via zoom calls arranged by their teachers.
“To be honest, from when I started the whole process back in 2011 it was always in the back of my mind would there be a way to bring the story to children”, Foley told GAA.ie
“The whole idea from the very beginning was to take a story we didn't know a whole lot about and actually recreate it as a story. Bring it to people in a way that they could engage with it.
“The idea of writing for children was kind of always there. But then when the centenary came around I got asked to do a number of zoom calls with school classrooms and you'd be sitting in your room waiting for the camera to kick in from the school and then you'd see all these children and what you'd see behind them were walls plastered with pictures and drawings of the Bloody Sunday victims and essays written about it, it kind of took my breath away a couple of times seeing it.
“The whole point of the thing for us at that time was to get the victims front row and centre so that when people remembered Bloody Sunday they'd remember the people more so even than the incident.
“So to see children and teachers take the trouble and the time to do these projects and to see all the work behind them was what you were driving towards in a nutshell.
“In early 2021 the publishers said would you be interested in trying a children's book and they were pushing an open door because after those experiences it kind of had been in the back of my head for years.
“Knowing as much as we did at that stage about the three children kind of lent itself to trying to tell the story to children through the eyes of children.”
Jerome O’Leary was the youngest victim of ‘Bloody Sunday’, and was shot dead while he watched the match on a wall behind the Canal goal.
William Robinson was the first person killed that day, having climbed a tree at the corner of the Canal end on Jones’ Road to view the match.
John William Scott was gravely wounded by a ricochet and died 45 minutes later after being carried to a nearby house.
Those bare details were as much and even more than most people knew about the three boys for decades, but Foley brings you into their lives in the days and moments that lead up to their death. In doing so, he humanises their story.
“It was obviously a very different world back then so part of it is trying to link it back to kids now and say, well, how can you identify with these kids who were from one hundred and odd years ago,” says Foley.
"I always say it’s easy to do that if you consider their ages - Jerome O'Leary was 10, William Robinson was 11, John William Scott was 14 – and you think about what you were doing when you were 10, 11, and 14.
“On my first trip to Croke Park I was 10 years old in 1987. My first All-Ireland Final I was 11, Tipperary and Galway in the hurling final. And then I was 14 when Cork did the double which was a big thing down here.
“The feeling of excitement that you would have in those moments is exactly the same feeling of excietment those kid would have had going to that game.
“Two of them went on their own and John Scott went with his friend, his school-mate, who called down for him and then they went off to the match together.
"That sense of liberation being off the leash for the day must have been brilliant. And it doesn't even have to be GAA, whatever people are in to, that first flush of excitement around a big event that you go to, that's what those kids would have been feeling.
“And I suppose that's what makes Bloody Sunday always and forever so stark is that flush of excitement you have for a game and then the scale of tragedy that unfolded, something that you could never possibly expect to happen in a sportsground, but it happens and it takes these kids' lives.”
So what does Foley hope that young readers of ‘The Children of Croke Park’ take from the book?
“First of all I hope they enjoy it as a story, as a piece of writing that reaches them,” he says.
“And the feedback has been positive. People have come back to me who have kids in that age-group who maybe wouldn't be great readers who really got hooked in by it and read it from cover to cover and were delighted by it.
“Someone recently who works in the area of grief counselling were telling me that they know people who have used the book with parents who have lost young children to try to open up conversations.
“From a kids point of view, you'd like to think that you're taking a story that might seem a million miles away to them, and making it real for them and helping them connect to the children first of all, Croke Park the place, and the feeling that's around Bloody Sunday in a way that doesn't freak them out.
“Because it is a very stark and poignant event so you have to be conscious of that when you're writing it as well, but in a way also that you don't stand back from it.
“It's kind of a safe space for kids to be able to engage with concepts like that. So that they enjoy it and connect with the kids and the notion that there's loads of stories out there and loads of stories around them in their own locality.
“They might know that this happened on this particular day in this place and that's about it. We want them to think that there was someone behind that episode and event and maybe reading books like this might encourage them to go out and find out a little bit more about their own locality as well.
“Who was that person who scored the winning goal in my local field in that big match or was killed in some way during the war of Independence or whatever the case may be.
“Or that relative of mine that I hear people talking about but I'm not 100 per cent sure of who they were or what exactly happened.
“You just want to open up another way to connect with and understand the world around them that shapes them.”
‘The Children of Croke Park – Bloody Sunday 1920’ can be purchased HERE.
Signed copies of the book can be purchased from the GAA Museum HERE.